After a four-month coast-to-coast casting search, NBC has completed the first round of its efforts to find American boxing's next great champion. Expected to hit the small screen early next year, The Contender will document the training trials of sixteen up-and-comer pugilists duking it out for a one million dollar purse. With Mark Burnett Productions at the helm, the company responsible for such runaway reality TV hits likes Survivor and The Apprentice, thousands got their chance to strut their stuff, with some MMA fighters among them. Co-executive producer Bruce Beresford-Redman estimates about 10% of the hopefuls who auditioned have been pure mixed martial artists. "We've seen a number," says Beresford. "We've seen a lot of kickboxers, we've seen a lot of ultimate fighting types. We've seen a couple of guys that did pankration."

UFC welterweight veteran Pete Spratt made the forty-five minute drive to the Dallas sessions, completing an arduous multi-step process of sparring, interviews, and medical examinations. "Really, the main thing that made me pursue this is because there's so much talk about who's the best fighters in the world, whether it's boxing, kickboxing, Muay Thai," says Spratt. "I just want to go in to prove that mixed martial artists can go into other sports and be dominant and be successful as well." Spratt was positive of his experience with casting directors, and awaits word if he will be among the sixty semi-finalists to be flown out to Los Angeles in July for the next round and another battery of tests.

Popular boxing personalities Sylvester Stallone and "Sugar" Ray Leonard have been enlisted as on-camera mentors to the sweet sixteen that will be whittled down from this larger group. All sixteen finalists will represent one weight class that has yet to be determined.